..Large-scale trials are needed to assess not only the safety and effectiveness of agents for the treatment of depression in comorbid illness, but also the effects of depression on the course of the medical illness itself...

..The first is early life stress disorder, and the second vascular depression. These conditions have reached a point where the data supports them as distinct entities. In this paper, the rationale for this is discussed...

..It is likely that a standardized approach that can develop and modify classification systems in a timely manner, based on science and free of societal and political influence, can enhance research, teaching and clinical practice...

Clinical and treatment response characteristics of late-life depression associated with vascular disease: a pooled analysis of two multicenter trials with sertraline

..These processes are efficient and generally accurate, but can sometimes lead to errors or biases. In this review we discuss the nature of these processes and their potential effects on decision making...

..In turn, this strategy should improve our ability to discern particular features of a disease and refine our notion of its clinical presentation and lead toward novel and improved treatments for our patients...

Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the effects of donepezil on neuronal markers and hippocampal volumes in Alzheimer's disease

..We sought to investigate this diagnosis as a construct by examining differences between depressed subjects with and without magnetic resonance imaging defined subcortical ischemic vascular depression...

..Additionally, differences between subgroups of depressed populations, including those with MRI-defined vascular depression and those with late-onset compared with early-onset depression are not well described...

..By extension, we suggest that orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex may play a role in sustaining perseverative processing in geriatric depression...

An 8-week multicenter, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of sertraline in elderly outpatients with major depression

Lon S SchneiderDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of SouthernCalifornia, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USAAm J Psychiatry 160:1277-85. 2003

..There have been few placebo-controlled trials of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for depressed elderly patients. This placebo-controlled study of sertraline was designed to confirm the results of non-placebo-controlled trials...

Diffusion tensor imaging: background, potential, and utility in psychiatric research

..It is only beginning to be utilized in psychiatric research. This article reviews the theory behind diffusion tensor imaging, its potential to map fiber tracts in the brain, and its recent use in psychiatric research...

Is there a definition of remission in late-life depression that predicts later relapse?

..Mean change in lesion volume and mean percentage of change were determined between the two time points. Logistic regression models were used to examine the differential effects of age, sex, race, and self-reported medical morbidity...

..Deep white matter hyperintense lesions are associated with advanced age and late-life depression. The authors examined where age-related cerebral lesions occurred in elderly depressed and healthy control subjects...

..Recent evidence has linked the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) with depression. We examined the relationship between OFC volumes in older subjects and impairment in the basic (BADL) and instrumental (IADL) activities of daily living...

..Elderly depressed patients have more vascular hyperintensities in frontal white matter and basal ganglia than elderly control subjects. Cell pathology that might be related to increased vascular hyperintensities has not been examined...

..6% of patients responded, and 65.35% of patients were able to achieve full remission of symptoms. The STAGED approach appears to be a clinically useful method of successfully treating elderly depressed patients...

Relationship of depression to increased risk of mortality and rehospitalization in patients with congestive heart failure

Safety and efficacy of sertraline for depression in patients with CHF (SADHART-CHF): a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of sertraline for major depression with congestive heart failure

..Multipoint linkage analysis yielded negative results except for Model 1a, in which a maximal LOD score was -1.24. A mutation screen of Exons 3 and 4 was negative. Notch3 does not appear to be a candidate gene for BPD in this family...

..Depression after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with higher morbidity and mortality. Although antidepressants are effective in reducing depression, their use in patients with cardiovascular disease remains controversial...

Antidepressant pharmacotherapy in the treatment of depression in the very old: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial

..This study examined the severity of subcortical hyperintensities (SH) and the relationship between SH and depression characteristics in two samples of elderly depressed outpatients differing in age...

The relationship of MRI subcortical hyperintensities to treatment response in a trial of sertraline in geriatric depressed outpatients